January 2022

Click here to see a letter from NIS administration.

Click here to learn tips to develop precision grasp patterns along with some activities you can do with your children at home to help develop their pincer grasps!

The Rate Parity bill has now been delivered to Governor Hochul thanks to your efforts in helping its passage through the House and Senate. Please reach out to Governor Hochul one last time and ask her to sign S.6516-A (Mannion)/A.8013-A (Benedetto). Please feel free to use this template letter (just add your name) which briefly outlines the issue and the legislation. You can e-mail the letter.

Thank you to everyone who adopted a child or family for the holidays, especially NIS father, Jeffrey Schatz and his employees at D.B.L. Associates, Inc. for their extremely generous donations.

Thank you Dana Busterna, father of an NIS alum, for organizing having his company, Qosina/Qosmedix, donate a huge shipment of PPE to help keep our students and staff members healthy and safe throughout these difficult times.

We are proud to report we have received a $25,000 contribution from the Richard J. O'Brien Foundation! This donation will help ensure the continuation of many of our innovative programs at NIS. Pictured above are NIS staff members, Jay Silverstein and Susan Cali beside Richard J. O'Brien Foundation commitee members Katherine O'Brien, Lauren O'Brien, and Jeff Barber.

The Long Island AOII Alum Chapter held a toy drive for NIS and purchased items off of our Outdoor Classroom Amazon Wish List. We are so thankful for these donations. Pictured above is Vicki, Bonnie, and Dorene, along with NIS staff member, Susan Cali. Special thanks to Jacqueline Menna for organizing this toy drive.

December was so much fun! We continue to develop our scooter skills by riding them safely on our bellies under”bridges” or in sitting. We practice marching tapping our marching sticks. We especially enjoyed twirling ribbon streamers to seasonal music. We used our imaginations pretending to be Santa’s elves making toys! We pretended to tap, nail, glue, paint, wrap and put the toys in Santa’s sleigh. Throwing snowballs into a snowman target was fun. We were practicing an overhand throw. One day we pretended to be reindeers trying out to pull Santa’s sleigh. We took turns jumping over Miss Mary’s magic rope which was a fence, a snake, and a river. Of course we participated in the obstacle course climbing, sliding, jumping rolling and shooting baskets. Jumping on the hopscotch is fun also. We try jumping, feet apart then together or one foot 2 feet. Click here to see our students in action! Looking forward to January and more scooter riding!

Please continue to practice mask-wearing with your children to keep us all germ free!

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